Hey phil9! Sorry to hear about
your flare and achilles troubles! All the best to you. I got out of my first major flare last year and returning to sports/activity was a big breath of fresh air for me (sadly I'm sidelined again at the moment with an injury haha), so I feel for you! You'll definitely get great help from this forum, but echoing Sibby, I think the sooner you can see a GI, the better.
The doctor will def know how to guide you with meds! The oral mesalamines are generally the most well-tolerated and basic drugs for the IBD ladder I believe, but even with commonly used medicines like that you'll want your GI to know and be aware of what you're taking (some people for example end up being allergic to mesalamines, even though they provide relief to many people). I don't know if I'd take something like 6 pills a day for a long time unless prescribed by the doctor, so I hope you are at least able to see your PCP/GI soon and ask them about
that - you don't want to negatively affect your kidneys! He can also provide you with the best dosage for your symptoms. Depending on how severe your symptoms are, your doctor may have you stick with oral mesalamine pills like Apriso, or prescribe you other oral or rectal meds to make you feel better. Rectal meds can be in the form of suppositories or enemas, come in steroid and non-steroid formulations, and often help people with disease in the lower part of their colon.
If you are actively flaring, I would definitely stick to a low residue diet (I ate all those same things and it was easy on my colon when I needed it!); it isn't the healthiest long term, but you can try your best to make it pretty healthy, and it will help to prevent you from further irritating your colon while you see your doctor. If you want to add vegetables, you could try steamed/boiled carrots or green beans. Other low residue like apple sauce, pudding, eggs, etc. can be added too! You'll want to make sure you're getting plenty of protein and avoiding too much fier which it seems like you're already doing. In agreement with the above comment, food tolerances can be very individualized and keeping a journal can be really helpful! As for the shakes, I agree that they can have some potentially irritating ingredients. I started drinking them to keep weight on when I was severely ill, as I had dropped so much weight and couldn't eat much, so if you feel that you are getting very sick and not able to keep much in, they may be an easy way to get calories while you are trying to get your flare under control. If you do end up having to go this route (although I hope you never get to that point!), there are drinks that you can get without lactose or too much sugar if those bother you (the hospital nutritionist was able to give me some; I forgot what brand but I believe Boost may make some?). As far as I could tell, these didn't cause any problems to me individually at the time; however, once I got all patched up, I went back to a more normal diet without them. They were helpful for me temporarily from a nutrition stand point.
I'd also like to add, while you are waiting to see your GI, you may also want to start keeping a "BM" journal. You can keep track of the amount of times you are going and what those look like (formed, liquid, blood, no blood, etc.). In addition to helping you with the food journal, this can be very helpful for you and your doctor when trying to pin down your pattern of symptoms. They had me do this even when I was in the hospital. Other random things I can think of are to try and stay hydrated - your colon normally helps you to absorb water, so you'll want to make sure with any diarrhea you are replenishing fluids and electrolytes. Also if you are going a lot, they make throwable medicated/moisturized wipes that help to prevent you from irritating yourself.
Lastly, and I realize that this may be difficult having to deal with multiple medical issues, but if its at all possible, try to keep down your stress! UC isn't caused by stress but from what I gather, it certainly doesn't help many of us who are flaring or about
to begin flaring. I remember my first flare coinciding with a stressful event for me, and the ensuing stress of the UC didn't help! If you are unfortunately "couched" for a bit, I'd view it as time to help yourself heal and be kind to your body; please don't rush yourself. Hopefully by the time you are un-couched, which I hope is relatively soon, you'll be farther along with both your achilles and your colon! Keep the hope up and feel free to keep everyone here posted! I'm guessing more helpful replies will be coming!
Post Edited (teddy92) : 6/16/2014 10:18:56 PM (GMT-6)